Irma Arguello

Irma Arguello is an international security expert from Argentina. She founded and currently chairs the Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation- NPSGlobal, a private, non-profit initiative oriented to help reduce risks derived from the proliferation and use of armaments, with a special emphasis on weapons of mass destruction. The organization is also devoted to building up adequate and opportune responses to such threats at all levels, in order to increase global security.

From a conceptual point of view, she focuses her public action on promoting the idea of a world free of weapons of mass destruction, and in particular, the abolition of nuclear weapons achieved through cooperation while based on fair global rules and equity among nations. In this sense, she was appointed to participate as panelist at the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, Oslo, February 26/27 2008, hosted by the [http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud.html?id=833/ Norwegian Government] in cooperation with the [http://nti.org/ Nuclear Threat Initiative] and the [http://hoover.org/ Hoover Institution] , along with leaders such as George P. Shultz, Sam Nunn, Mohamed ElBaradei, and a group of scientists and experts on international security from 29 countries.

=Education=Graduated from the Universidad de Buenos Aires with a degree in Physics Sciences, after working at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, España.

Along with masters level studies in Defense and Security at the Escuela de Defensa Nacional (Argentina), her formal education also includes a Master in Business Administration from IDEA/ Wharton School, delivered in Argentina.

=Career=

She worked as a scientist specializing in nuclear safety, design, and calculus at the Laboratory of Radiochemical Processes (LPR Project) - National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), the Argentine reprocessing project located near Buenos Aires.

Her managerial career has included international positions with focus on strategic planning, business analysis, communications, education and training, and human resources with ExxonMobil and the Latin American Petrochemical Association.

Since 2000, she has worked as an independent consultant, focused on strategies formulation and implementation, new projects, and management of change as well as a publisher of academic publications.

Recent academic activities include appointment by the IESE, University of the Army, Argentina, to organize a regional "Postgraduate Course in Disarmament and Nonproliferation". This course will be the first one delivered in Spanish worldwide, and it will cover all main disarmament and nonproliferation issues, from a systemic and multidisciplinary perspective.

She has been teaching an eight-week seminar on the subject, open to the public, for the last 4 years, and she is a frequent lecturer about matters related to her fields of expertise. Her former teaching experience also includes topics like Modern Physics and Management, at several Universities and Institutes.

=Membership=Irma is a member of WIIS (Women In International Security), an organization with headquarters in Washington DC, USA, whose mission is to increase the influence of women in the fields of foreign and defense affairs by raising the numbers and visibility, while enhancing dialogue about international security issues.

She also participates in the “Foro Argentino de Mujeres Ejecutivas” (Argentine Forum of Executive Women), whose goal is to create relationships between executive women from all kind of organizations, through the development of activities of common interest.

= Further reading = [http://disarmament.nrpa.no/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/Paper_Arguello.pdf/ Confidence Building in Regional Conflicts Involving Nuclear Dangers] , by Irma Arguello, paper for the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, Oslo, February, 2008.

[http://www.npsglobal.org/wfnw.html/ A World Free of Nuclear Weapons] , by Irma Arguello, for the diario La Nación, Buenos Aires, February 2008.

[http://www.npsglobal.org/wmdtwb.htm/ Weapons of Mass Destruction, a Threat Without Boundaries] , by Irma Arguello, for the diario La Nación, Buenos Aires, October 2006.

[http://www.nuclearsecurityproject.org/atf/cf/{1fce2821-c31c-4560-bec1-bb4bb58b54d9}/ A World Free of Nuclear Weapons] , by George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, for The Wall Street Journal, January 2007.

[http://www.nuclearsecurityproject.org/atf/cf/{1FCE2821-C31C-4560-BEC1-BB4BB58B54D9}/TOWARD_A_NUCLEAR_FREE_WORLD_OPED_011508.PDF/ Toward a Nuclear-Free World] , by George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, for the The Wall Street Journal, January 2008.

=External Links= [http://npsglobal.org/ Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation - NPSGlobal]

[http://www.nuclearsecurityproject.org/ Nuclear Security Project]

[http://disarmament.nrpa.no/ International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, Oslo, February 26/ 27, 2008.]

[http://wiis.georgetown.edu/ Women In International Security - WIIS]